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Topic: What eats Hops? (Read 9086 times)

I've got two hop plants in big buckets near the woods in our yard. I'm curious if any wild animals, wild cats or dogs, birds or otherwise eats them. FWIW, I've seen rabbits, stray cats, and armadillos in the area at times.

I was recently discussing this with a guy near me who has planted about 70 hills. He has a problem with groundhogs and rabbits eating the foliage, and with deer eating the cones of his noble varieties only. It's on the grounds of Cincinnati's largest German heritage group, so maybe the deer have become German by osmosis.

Maybe the big buckets will prevent this partially. What are the shoots?

as the plant begins to grow above ground the little stems that come up are the shoots. first year just let them all ride. you want the plants to grow as much leaf matter as possible so they can build a strong root system. after a year or two you will want to cull most of the shoots that come up leaving only a few shoots per crown. generally the early shoots get culled because they can be a bit weaker so if you let them get 3-4 inches tall and slightly less than pencil thick you can snip them off, steam them, and eat them with butter.

Just checking back in as I've got a couple of shoots approaching a foot in one bucket. It sounds like I don't have to train any of them to climb this year, is that correct? Since they won't product any cones and I won't be snipping any, is there any point other than aesthetics?

Just checking back in as I've got a couple of shoots approaching a foot in one bucket. It sounds like I don't have to train any of them to climb this year, is that correct? Since they won't product any cones and I won't be snipping any, is there any point other than aesthetics?

If this is their first year you should let everything grow. Hops are near the top of the heap when it comes to being able to produce more photosynthate (energy) than is needed to sustain above-ground growth. The additional energy not utilized by the vines will be directed back down into the crown for use by the rhizome/crown as it develops roots. Any excess will be stored in the crown to be used in the future.

You should train them on something as opposed to letting them crawl all over the ground as this can create an excess of moisture/dampness near the base of the plant that can lead to conditions that favor disease development.